Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of accepting a plurality of jobs, a method of controlling the same, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
In recent digital printers, various media types are supported. By using multiple types of media, it is possible to easily generate complex and high-value-added output material as a result. Also, digital printers directed to a POD market generally are provided with a job hold function. Job hold indicates a function of holding a plurality of print job data items in a digital printer temporarily or persistently, and selecting and printing of specific job data at a later stage. A function for selecting desired data from out of a plurality print job data items held by the job hold function is also provided. With this, an operator can select job data corresponding to desired print processing. An operator of the digital printer, at a stage at which a certain number of print job data items that he should process himself is stored by the job hold function, selects a plurality of job data items to be printing targets, and instructs print processing. In other words, it is possible to aim for optimization by performing print processing of stored print job data collectively.
Also, in a digital printer, a media mismatch determination for determining whether or not attribute information of media used in a job matches the attribute information of media registered to a feed cassette is performed when a job is registered. For example, in a media mismatch determination, if the attribute information of media used in the job is “A4 normal paper”, and the attribute information of media registered to the feed cassette is “A4 normal paper”, the result of the determination is “match”. On the other hand, if the attribute information of the media used in the job is “A4 normal paper”, for example, and the attribute information of the media registered to the feed cassette is “A4 coated paper”, the result of the determination is “mismatch”.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-62970, reading identification information that a storage medium is provided with, and determining availability of the storage medium for a user associated with the identification information, and controlling image formation based on the result of the determination is proposed.
In the setting of the media used for the print job, there are cases in which an attribute designation indicating, in addition to an identifier of the media, properties of the media such as a grammage, a surface property, a shape, a color, or the like, is performed. Because the attributes that express media vary greatly, and supporting all of them is not realistic, attributes having a high degree of importance may be supported as designatable attributes in accordance with the capabilities of the digital printer and the user of the digital printer. If an attribute designation is performed, the following problems may occur on a digital printer.
Explanation is given of an example in which 2 operators A and B share one digital printer in separate intervals to execute jobs. For example, the operator A and the operator B send a plurality of print jobs to be executed to a holding function that the digital printer is provided with in advance, and it is envisioned that subsequent printing is performed collectively when it is possible to monopolize the use of the digital printer. Firstly, operator A sends a plurality of jobs to the digital printer. At the stage at which they are inputted, one of the media entries (media information) that the digital printer manages is selected, and is stored in the job hold in an associated state. Operator B similarly performs a media designation by an attribute designation, and sends a plurality of jobs to the digital printer. At the stage at which they are inputted, the media entries that the digital printer manages are selected, and stored in the job hold in an associated state. Note that the media mismatch determination is performed upon job inputting.
When the operator A can monopolize use of the digital printer, jobs that he himself stored in the holding function are listed, and the physical media to actually be used is determined. At this time, for media entries that are mismatches in the media mismatch determination, the operator A can start printing having edited the attributes to match the physical media to actually be used.
Assume that the usage of the digital printer by the operator A finishes, and next the operator B uses the same digital printer. Hypothetically, a case is envisioned in which a job by the operator B references a media entry that is the same as the media entry that the operator A, which is the previous device user used. As described above, the operator A, in order to execute a print job that he is in charge of, obtains a resulting document in a desired form having edited the attributes of the media entry at the operator's own discretion. Accordingly, there is no guarantee that a media entry in such a state will be similarly suitable for the operator B. If the operator B neglects to confirm the attributes of the media entry, or overlooks important attribute information, a resulting document using media that is inappropriate for the operator B will be generated.